Celebrating books [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]

Sun Dec 5 22:47:29 UTC 2010

Hi All again,

It seems I can’t post a message with attachment. I have pasted in the digest in the message itself.

Thanks

Subhash

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 *   There is a Hinuera sandstone sculpture of Gollum, a very popular place for photos, at the main highway intersection in downtown Matamata, Aotearoa New Zealand (home of the Hobbiton movie set from the Lord of the Rings films
 *   Alice in Wonderland in Central Park in New York
 *   Anne of Green Gables House, Prince Edward island, Canada seems to fit,too: http://www.gov.pe.ca/greengables/
 *   the statue of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, in London
 *   The city of Bukhara in Uzbekistan and Akşehir in Turkey have statues of the fictional satirical figure, Mulla Nasreddin, in their public spaces.  He is mostly presented as a traveler riding his donkey backwards
 *   ducks in Boston Public Garden yet?  From Robert McCloskey's Make Way for the Ducklings
 *   There is a statue of Eleanor Rigby (from the Beatles song) sitting on a bench in Liverpool.
 *   On the campus of the University of Maryland in College Park, there is a statue of Jim Henson in conversation with Kermit the Frog (sitting on a stone bench). I believe that Henson is a University of Maryland alumni. So, that one combines the creator and the fictional character.
 *   The stories of "Anne of Green Gables" by Prince Edward Island native Lucy Maud Montgomery are legendary throughout the world, but nowhere more prominently than in Japan, where the stories and characters (not so much the author!) have had a cult following for many years, and since 1952 have been required reading in Japanese schools.  The Ikutamateramachi area of Japan even boasts an Anne of Green Gables Hotel.  Japanese tourists on the Island often treat Montgomery's Anne as though she were an historical person rather than a fictional character.  For a videoclip on this phenomenon see: http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/literature/clips/11213/
 *   The town of White River in northern Ontario features a monument to Winnie-the-Pooh, as does the London Zoo in the UK.  Both places have a special connection to A.A. Milne's favourite fictional character.  You can find the whole story on White River's website at: http://www.whiteriver.ca/article/winnie-the-pooh-6.asp. Incidentally, the town of White River's motto is directly connected to the character: "Where it all began--Winnie-the-Pooh".
 *   In one of the main squares of Ulyanovsk (formerly Simbirsk), hometown of Goncharov, there is a monument to Oblomov consisting of a life-size replica in stone of his divan and on the ground beside it a replica cast in metal of his slippers waiting in perpetuity for their owner to lower his feet into them - if he can ever summon up the energy.
 *   Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park in New York, and I think there is a statue of Paddington Bear in Paddington Station in London.
 *   There is a statue of Mary Tyler Moore (or is it her fictional alter ego, Mary Richards?) in Minneapolis, celebrating the Mary Tyler Moore show, which was set there (http://joeorman.shutterace.com/Bizarre/Bizarre_MTM.html)
 *   NYC Central Park has a statue of Hans Christian Anderson holding a book, whose pages are turned to "The Ugly Duckling" which was, apparently, his best loved story. There is a duckling at his feet, towards which the statue reaches. There is another statue in Solvang, California. There is also a Mother Goose statue at the entry to Rumsey Play Field.There is a statue to "The Little Mermaid" in Copenhagen Harbor (never mind all of the things that Disney has done, none of which have really honored the original story).The Macy's Thanksgiving parade has introduced ten female characters/balloons:  Olive Oyl, Raggedy Ann, Betty Boop, Sky Dancer, Petunia Pig, Cassie from Dragon Tales, JoJo the Clown, Dora the Explorer, Hello Kitty, and Abby Cadabby.Minnehaha and Hiawatha (Longfellow) are memorialized by a statue in the middle of the waters at the head of Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis, Minnesota.The Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden for Children featuring bronze statues of Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins, and Ribsy, was recently opened in Portland, Oregon.There are statues of Paul Bunyon and Babe the blue ox in several states.These include Minnesota, Michigan, Maine, California, Wisconsin and, believe it or not, New York.
 *   Mother Goose is widely believed to be buried in the Old Granary Burial Ground, Boston, MA.  http://www.mass-doc.com/mass_cemetery_guide.htm
 *   The Laura Ingalls Wilder home and museum exists to honor a series of childrens' books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. http://www.lauraingallswilderhome.com/
 *   Greenfield Village (Detroit) exists not only as a monument to Henry Ford, but a showcase to popular culture.http://www.thehenryford.org/about/index.aspx
 *   Bath, United Kingdom has an annual Jane Austen festival where the characters of her books are celebrated and visitors/participants dress to represent their favorite characters  http://www.janeausten.co.uk/festival/index.ihtml
 *   Rochester, United Kingdom has an annual Dickens festival. I went through Rochester in 1984 and was privileged to participate in some of the festivities, which honor the characters of Dickens' books. http://www.rochesterdickensfestival.org.uk/
 *   And, then there's the Creation Museum in Northern Kentucky. As stated on its home page:"The state-of-the-art 70,000 square foot museum brings the pages of the Bible to life, casting its characters and animals in dynamic form and placing them in familiar settings. Adam and Eve live in the Garden of Eden. Children play and dinosaurs roam near Eden¹s Rivers. The serpent coils cunningly in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Majestic murals, great masterpieces brimming with pulsating colors and details, provide a backdrop for many of the settings."I've never been there, but I would guess that Adam and Eve aren't naked in this version of creationism.
 *   Many film and television museums (museums of the moving image) have such exhibits.  The former Museum of the Moving Image in London had actor/characters dressed in period costume to play out historical parts (though not fictional characters).
 *   The tradition of the "living museum" may also provide you with some grounding.  There's a good book on Colonial Williamsburg which touches on these issues.  See Richard Handler and Eric Gable, THE NEW HISTORY IN AN OLD MUSEUM:  CREATING THE PASST AT COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG.
 *   On another note (and perhaps similar to the H. Potter listed below), there have been certain marketing schemes for films (such as JUNO) that have employed the traveling motif (with a mobile pop up replica of the character's bedroom).
 *   I'm sure there's lots... Off the top of my head, the statue of Alice in Wonderland in Central Park, New York; the statue of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, London; the Sherlock Holmes decorations in Baker Street tube station; a Winnie-the-Pooh statue in White River, Ontario (yes, it's a tenuous link); a statue of Little Nell (with Dickens) in Philadelphia; the Doctor Who museum in Blackpool, at least until several years ago. Another one which has recently disappeared is the homemade sculpture of the Silver Surfer in Dudley - http://www.expressandstar.com/latest/2008/09/05/silver-surfer-destroyed-in-dudley/
 *   Winnie-the-Pooh Street in Warsaw (ulica Kubusia Puchatka) and a Sherlock Holmes monument in a small place in Switzerland (Meiringen).
 *   Major Kovaljov's Nose: http://www.encspb.ru/article.php?kod=2805563356
 *   There is a wonderful monument to Tvardovsky and Vassily Tyorkin in Smolensk. http://www.naroch.land.ru/smolensk/tvardovsky.htm - I have a rather nice photo of this that I took for my Ruslan 3 book, if you need one.John Langran www.ruslan.co.uk<file:///G:\group\users\sjaireth\my%20documments\subhash\books\www.ruslan.co.uk>
 *   There's a statue of Sherlock Holmes outside Baker Street Underground station in London
 *   You may be aware of this already, but there's a series of sculptures of characters from Krylov tales around the remaining Patriarch's pond in Moscow (take Malaya Bronnaya ulitsa from Sadovaya-Kudrinnskaya).
 *   I have seen three statues of D'Artagnan (Paris, Maastricht and Auch) and I see from the internet that there is one in Xavier University Cincinnati.
 *   If the scope of your project extends beyond Russia and Russian literature, the following (from Wikipedia entry on Bloomsday at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomsday) might be of interest: Bloomsday has also been celebrated since 1994 in the Hungarian town of Szombathely, the fictional birthplace of Leopold Bloom's father, Virág Rudolf, an emigrant Hungarian Jew. The event is usually centered around the Iseum, the remnants of an Isis temple from Roman times, and the Blum-mansion, commemorated to Joyce since 1997, at 40–41 Fő street, which used to be the property of an actual Jewish family called Blum. Hungarian author László Najmányi in his 2007 novel, The Mystery of the Blum-mansion (A Blum-ház rejtélye) describes the results of his research on the connection between Joyce and the Blum family. Over the door of the house in question is (or was, at least, as recently as 2004) a plaque that details the putative connection with the novel.
 *   Voronezh has a statue of Bim from Gavriil Troepolsky's "Belyi Bim chernoe ukho" - see http://www.ruschudo.ru/miracles/3309/ for pictures
 *   There is a monument to Leskov's "Levsha" in Tula Have a look at this page: http://lana05-05.ya.ru/replies.xml?item_no=20327 It contains a list of photographs featuring several writers, actors and various characters, including Ostap Bender, Ellochka Liudoedka,Dama s sobachkoj, etc. Here is the site that contains a monument to Ostap Bender in Elista: http://www.suvenirograd.ru/sights.php?id=642&lang=1 You could see more monuments here, including various monuments related to Russian animated films and cartoons (krokodil Gena, "Nu, pogodi", etc.):http://animalworld.com.ua/news/Monument
 *   The town of White River in northern Ontario features a monument to Winnie-the-Pooh, as does the London Zoo in the UK.  Both places have a special connection to A.A. Milne's favourite fictional character.  You can find the whole story on White River's website at:http://www.whiteriver.ca/article/winnie-the-pooh-6.asp. Incidentally, the town of White River's motto is directly connected to the character: "Where it all began--Winnie-the-Pooh".
 *   There is a statue of Kovalyov's nose in a courtyard in St. Petersburg State University.  I think I have a photo somewhere if you're interested.  Also, outside of the Gogol museum in Moscow, underneath the statue of the writer are characters from his works (I can send a picture of this, as well).
 *   There's a statue of Mary Richards (the TV character played by Mary Tyler Moore) in Minneapolis.
 *   There are two noses, one in St.Petersburg: http://mozion.ru/index.php/2010/05/nos-majora-kovalyova/ and another in Kiev: http://www.segodnya.ua/news/14111454.html These guys collected a few more: http://otvet.mail.ru/question/32928500/ 22 pictures here: http://mikoy.moifoto.ru/85747 Another large collection: http://bookmix.ru/groups/viewtopic.phtml?id=557 Some of the same, and some added: http://www.gazeta.lv/story/8530.html TV personalities and more (scroll down): http://www.gazeta.lv/story/9665.html. And a whole lot more: http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=%D0%BF%D0%B0%D0%BC%D1%8F%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B8%20%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%83%D1%80%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%BC%20%D0%B3%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%8F%D0%BC&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1296&bih=602
 *   And in Odessa, there is a chair monument to The 12 Chairs, a popular place to sit and have your picture taken.A link to the photo is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Twelve_Chairs_monument_in_Odessa_(Ukraine)_2.jpg
 *   And there is an Ostap with a chair in St. Petersburg, on Italianskaia street near Kanal Griboedova: *http://tinyurl.com/277d6yf*

Dr. Subhash Jaireth
Senior Research Scientist
Onshore Energy and Minerals Division
phone: 61 2 6249 9419; fax: 61 2 6249 9917
Email: subhash.jaireth at ga.gov.au<mailto:subhash.jaireth at ga.gov.au>
web address: www.ga.gov.au<http://www.ga.gov.au>
Postal address: Cnr Jerrabomberra Avenue
and Hindmarsh Drive, Symonston.
GPO Box 378
Canberra ACT 2601 Australia
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